Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

There is a great opportunity for our incoming Taoiseach. I ask him to consider seriously taking a leaf from the book of the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr. Zapatero, and increasing the number of women in his Cabinet.

The Green Paper on local government reform was published yesterday. There are many good things in it. Certainly the news that towns such as Ashbourne and Maynooth may soon get their own town councils is welcome. At the same time I am concerned that the paper contains nothing about how all this will be funded nor indeed any details on local government funding. As a person who comes from a commuter area I know how concerned people are at how difficult it is becoming to provide basic essential services because of the lack of funding and the lack of increase in funding to keep pace with population growth.

The proposal for directly elected mayors is welcome. Many of us who have experience in this regard will know that county managers are like local czars. They are unelected, unaccountable and in many cases are cosseted from the coalface by their officials. Directly elected mayors will contribute to democracy if the experience of London is anything to go by. There has been a dramatic improvement in the quality of life in that city. My only question is why must we wait until 2011? Why can we not have directly elected mayors sooner?